It sure d. Okay, martha, thanks. More from our chief white house correspondent jonathan karl. Jon, a delicate balancing act. They want to deter north korea, defend against the possible attack but have to be careful about provoking one too. Reporter: That's right. No doubt that the white house is taking this very seriously. I am told the president is getting regular updates, not just on th north korean military developments but even the rhetoric coming out of north korea. But, george, the real goal right now is to try to turn the temperature down so while the s. Has made it clear with those military maneuvers that they will respond to any attack coming from the north, they want to turn the temperature down now because the biggest danger is a miscalculation that could lead to war. And, you know, we've seen these cycles of bluster from north korea in the past. New factor here, though, is this new, young dictator, jong-un, and not much is known about him. Well, that is exactly right. We've certainly seen over the top rhetoric from his father. I mean year after year this happens in an effort to try to get stuff out of the international community but they don't know much about kim jong-un and the other fact here is the bottom line is north korea has made advances in their military. They've got a better missile program now. Their nuclear program is certainly more advanced than it's ever been so there's a lot of uncertainty even though they see this as part of the typical pattern. Successful test a couple months back, another one possibly coming later this month. Jon karl, thanks very much.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

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